You’ll notice something new on my blog today. On the right-hand column you’ll see a new PayPal donate button. I didn’t want to do this, but it’s coming down to a question of economics. Let me go over a few numbers with you about the costs and profits of alternative and skeptical inquiry into the human past so you can see why donating is so important.

I have been blogging since 2001, when my first website launched its “News and Quick Views” column—long before the current blogging wave. My current blog (the one you’re reading now) launched in 2010 with my JasonColavito.com website. My agent and publishers agreed that writing a blog was a smart promotional tool that would draw readers to my work and thus increase sales. Well, it didn’t work out that way. The blog has become the tail that wagged the dog. Instead of the blog generating book sales, my books have led readers to my blog, which has seen exponential readership growth. (On good days, more people read this blog than the total number who have ever bought all of my books, combined.) This is all to the good, and I love sharing my research and ideas with my readers. However, unlike my books the blog doesn’t make me any money, and it takes a great deal of time and effort to maintain at its current level. In short, my blog is simply “too good” and is cannibalizing the audience for my books since readers feel they are getting enough from me for free. So this leaves me with a few options:

Reduce the quality of the blog and my website and make it hacky and self-promotional, like most authors’ blogs, saving all the good material only for fewer, paying customers.

Sell ad space in or around the blog, which would require some serious ethical compromises (the only interested advertisers are those that sell scams and shams) as well as a reduction in the quality of my readers’ reading experience in order to generate revenue.

Ask readers who enjoy my work to contribute toward its continued quality by donating to help keep my blog ad-free.

I don’t particularly like any of these options, but the fact is that the economics of publishing are increasingly dire. Let’s take the case of my last professionally-published book, A Hideous Bit of Morbidity. This book was illegally downloaded on file sharing sites more than 4,000 times in the first six months after publication. I stopped monitoring the figures after that, but it hasn’t stopped, despite cease-and-desist letters from McFarland’s lawyer. In the most recent six month period for which I have figures, the re-launched paperback version of the book sold one copy. One. In six months. Meanwhile, the book is still being downloaded on dozens of file sharing websites every day. The fact is that people aren’t buying books when they can download them. A couple of months ago, I asked readers to help support my site by buying a book. In the two weeks following my request, I sold one JasonColavito.com Books paperback, for a profit of $0.63, against a daily blog readership of thousands. Consider this: My YouTube video “The Lovecraft Connection” has been viewed more times in the past two weeks than the entire number of people who have bought The Cult of Alien Gods (on which it is based) in the past two years. Now contrast this with ancient astronaut theorists, whose audience is not just willing but happy to shower them with money. Consider: Giorgio Tsoukalos is paid to speak on Ancient Aliens, paid again as a producer on Ancient Aliens, paid thousands per week to deliver speeches about ancient aliens, paid to travel the world to “investigate” ancient aliens, and makes more than just pocket change selling merchandise with his face on it. He also takes a fraction of all the subscriptions to the Ancient Alien Society and all the books sold through his Legendary Times Books website. Sales are robust enough that he can afford a staff to maintain his website. (My website and everything on it are entirely my own work, even down to the graphic design.) And what exactly has he actually created? Nothing. No books, no documentaries, nothing. And yet his audience is willing to pay him handsomely. Even the lesser lights of ancient astronautics—the almost completely unknown people, the ones who lie, commit plagiarism, or produce outright fraud—still receive speaking fees and book deals because of publishers’ perceptions of the reading public’s desire to be lied to. I have been told outright by major publishers that my work can't be published because no one wants to read truth. They told me to come back with aliens, Atlantis, monsters, or something sensationally untrue. I’m not saying that I deserve cash just for being me (though, of course, that’s correct), but the fact of the matter is that I can’t keep churning out quality material for free. I wish I could, but every hour I spend writing this blog or adding to this website is an hour I’m not working elsewhere to make cash money. Fighting for Truth takes cash. Other skeptics have relatively cushy academic positions that give them the freedom and the cash to do skepticism part time; I work freelance, and every hour has monetary value. Eventually it will come down to a choice of whether to write a blog post or pay my health insurance premium. So, consider buying something or donating. (I'll also be posting an Amazon wish list at some point if you'd prefer donate things rather than cash.) Otherwise, I’ll be forced to either reduce the quality and frequency of the blog or add a lot of annoying ads to pay for the site. And the only winners in that case will be ancient astronaut theorists, who have the benefit of shamelessness.

The answer is simple:
1) Create an alternate identity from which you can publish numerous tomes on ancient aliens, Atlantis, big foot, ethical politicians, and other sensationalist made-up rubbish.
2) Google | Copy | Paste many books (but be sure to alter the quotes of your secondary sources to keep your work original).
3) Publish these books through the publishers you already know are looking for this kind of work. Make lots of money.
4) Debunk your alternate identity works on this site as a form of stealth promotion.
5) Find a homeless guy to act as the public face of your alternate identity. Pay him with cheap alcohol and fried chicken. Record him rambling about the theories in your books. Post them on U-Tube.
6) Contact the History Channel and pitch them on your new series based on the aforementioned YouTube videos.
7) Produce the new show, make even more money.
8) Get consistently higher ratings than Ancient Aliens. Call Giorgio Tsoukalos and laugh at him.

I'll happily agree to be your agent and help you execute this plan for the very reasonable fee of 15% off the top.

Don't think I haven't thought about it. When I first started out writing, I ghostwrote an alternative history book for a Canadian author that was published by a major British publishing house. (Due to confidentiality, I can't say what it was.) But I had ethical qualms about writing things I believed to be untrue (though in this case it was the "author's" opinions, not any false facts), and I've been reluctant to continue on with ghostwriting for that reason.

If I have time, I'll try to write more about this for my blog tomorrow.

All of my professionally published books are available in both print and ebook formats. (That's how the pirates got an e-copy to pirate.) I can't offer them myself because the publishers hold the distribution rights until such time as they go out of print.

My own privately printed books are not yet all in ebook because, honestly, it takes forever to do one of them in ebook thanks to all the heading/subheading and formatting requirements, and most of them are available in plain vanilla ebook formats for free online since many are reprints of public domain work.

Aw, poor baby. You must be the only writer who doesn't make money. Seriously? Welcome to the club. If people don't buy your stuff it isn't because they can read your free blog as an alternative, it's because they don't find it worth paying for.

As you said yourself, they are willing to pay bookoos to see this Giorgio Tsoukolos when they could also see/read all his stuff on free television. It's because he has charisma.

Why don't you just stop writing a free blog and then make people pay to have a membership?

Why would anybody pay to read this when blogs are a dime a dozen and they can read this and better on any day at any time?

I didn't ask readers to make me rich, O sarcastic commenter. I asked my readers to help me keep this site running since, unlike commenting on other's posts, maintaining a website costs actual money. If I could afford it, I'd let anyone read all my work for free.

In the internet's collaborative culture, "crowdsourcing" has become part and parcel of doing business online. All I did is ask my readers to become active partners in making the blog possible.

That's a far cry from deceiving readers into paying for recycled content, charging for fraudulent "secrets," and demanding cash for autographs, like ancient astronaut theorists do.

Reply

L. Petra

10/2/2012 03:27:11 pm

Blogging is also FREE. That's how many of us do it. You don't HAVE to pay to keep a good blog. You DON'T

Sean

10/8/2012 09:50:26 pm

I'm curious about how royalties work for book sales. After your appeal for people to buy your books, I had a look through and was intrigued by the Faust book, so I went and bought a copy from Amazon.co.uk since it was cheaper that buying it through this website. Do you get any cash for that, or is it out of your hands once it's with a retailer?